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Can Mindfulness Help with On-the-job Stress and Burnout?

Ruth Buczynski, PhD — Mon, 20 May 2013 20:26:21 +0000

On-the-job stress and burnout can strike no matter what your profession . . . and unfortunately, even the classroom is no exception.

Teaching is one profession that can be particularly stressful – teachers can experience detrimental effects on their health, well-being, and job performance from stress and burnout.

So what can teachers do to cope with the stressful challenges they face each day in the classroom?

Robert W. Roeser, PhD, from Portland State University, wanted to see if mindfulness could help.

Roeser and his colleagues investigated whether training teachers in mindfulness would affect teachers’ capacity to perform more effectively in the classroom.

Researchers recruited 55 public school teachers in the United States and 58 teachers in Canada. In each group, participants completed baseline assessments and were then randomly assigned to either the mindfulness training group or a waitlist-control group.

The mindfulness training program involved 11 sessions and took place over 8 weeks. It included five teaching activities: guided mindfulness and yoga practices, group discussions, small-group activities to practice skills in real-life scenarios, lecture and guided home practices, and homework assignments to develop and apply mindfulness and self-compassion.

Participants in both groups completed an immediate post-program assessment and also a 3-month follow-up. All three assessments (including baseline) consisted of self-reported measures of occupational stress, burnout, health, and well-being. At baseline and post program only, objective assessments of blood pressure and pulse rates were taken.

So how did mindfulness affect teacher stress levels?

Researchers found that a mindset of self-compassion and mindfulness helped the participants more effectively manage stress.

Post-program and follow-up results showed that the teachers in the mindfulness training group reported greater mindfulness and a more self-compassionate mindset than the control. Teachers in the intervention group also reported large declines in occupational stress and symptoms of burnout, anxiety, and depression.

The objective assessments of blood pressure and resting heart rate however, showed no significant differences post-program between the mindfulness group and the control group.

It is interesting to note that the results were similar between the groups in Canada and the United States, giving support to the universal benefits of this program.

One caveat, however, is that the self-report measures may have been influenced by social desirability.

We also want to be cautious in viewing the intervention as the sole cause of the results because this study used a waitlist-controlled design.

That’s because with this kind of design, we don’t know for sure if the result was caused by the intervention or by the extra attention that the treatment group got. I’d have preferred to see some kind of non-mindfulness intervention given to the control group.

But the subjects were randomized and the findings are indeed promising.

If you’d like to learn more about this study, it can be found online in the Journal of Educational Psychology.

Have you ever worked with mindfulness to help patients manage on-the-job stress? How about your own on-the-job stress? Please share your experience in the comments below.

Common Practices for Helping Trauma Survivors Heal

Ruth Buczynski, PhD — Tue, 14 May 2013 21:47:38 +0000

When it comes to treating trauma, it’s safe to say that one intervention does not fit all.

Knowing how to apply different approaches can be critical to reducing symptoms and accelerating recovery time.

But, perhaps equally important is understanding the overarching themes that can be essential in the treatment of trauma, and learning the most effective practices that are common across even a diverse group of experts in the field.

Ron Siegel, PsyD picked up on quite a number of these among the experts featured in our recent Treatment of Trauma series – he outlines quite a few in the video below.

Check it out, it’s just 3 minutes.

Click here to sign up.

We’ll be getting into a lot more with Ron when he and Joan Borysenko, PhD join me for our Series Capstone Session, created exclusively for Next Level Gold Members.

They’ll be sharing the key steps in working with trauma, as well as how to determine when a patient is ready for reintegration.

This session is available with a Next Level Gold Membership – just click here to register.

What are some of the common ideas and practices you notice in your own work with trauma survivors? Please share your experience in the comment section below.

A Look at Trauma from Inside the Brain

Ruth Buczynski, PhD — Mon, 13 May 2013 22:01:57 +0000

Trauma’s impact on the body can often be readily apparent, but what does trauma look like from inside the brain?

According to David Berceli, PhD, there’s a specific sequence to how the brain processes trauma . . .

. . . and knowing how it works could be essential to honing our approach to the treatment of trauma.

David takes us through the process in the short video below. Check it out – it’s just 3 minutes.

Click here to sign up.

The webinar with David is a special bonus for Gold Members, and in it, he’ll give us an in-depth look at his one-of-a-kind Trauma Release Process, and show us how to work with the body’s defense mechanisms to turn the effects of trauma around.

If you’re a Gold Member already, we’ll be broadcasting this webinar today at 5pm EDT, and of course, you’ll also be getting the links for the download, as well as the transcript afterward.

And if you’re not a Gold Member but you’d like to be, just sign up right here.

How have you tailored treatment when it comes to helping patients process trauma neurologically? Please share your experience below.

Changing lives all around the world

Ruth Buczynski, PhD — Fri, 10 May 2013 13:09:35 +0000

There are people who are working hard, day in and day out, to discover the breakthroughs that can improve trauma treatment . . .

And then there are the people, including many of you, who work hard to learn the latest so you can make a difference in the lives of your patients – trauma survivors who just want to get their lives back.

As this year’s Treatment of Trauma series comes to a close, I’d like to take a moment to look back and reflect on what we’ve learned.

It has been quite a journey as we added to our knowledge week after week.

I’m inspired by all the feedback we’ve gotten throughout the series – it means so much to us to be able to see how you’re using the ideas from the series in your work and in your life.

We’re also excited to see people from all over the world in all kinds of professions using the comment boards to communicate – whether it’s to share resources with each other, or even to open up about their own personal experiences with trauma.

This year’s trauma series had practitioners from a record-breaking number of countries – 11,996 people from 78 countries! The largest webinar was attended by 6,622 practitioners from 59 countries.

Having this kind of participation tells us that this topic matters to people all over the globe. The strong international presence also adds a valuable international perspective to our comment boards.

I’d like to share some of the thoughts from this year’s trauma series that have really stayed with me:

“I found this evening’s talk [with Stephen Porges] quite fascinating, offering a different perspective . . . It is a pleasure to be presented with a theory and therapy in-the-making. As a mind-body therapist for people with cancer, I was familiar with the effect of yoga, meditation, and relaxation and the subsequent impact on the vagal system. However, I wasn’t aware of this other reptilian vagal response . . .”
- Mudita Maclurcan, MindBody therapist for people with cancer, NSW, Australia

“This was a wonderful refresher webinar with Pat [Ogden] that has captured what I need to do more of in my work as my relationship with the clients develops over a period of time . . . Thanks for another great webinar again!”
- Catherine Sonaram-Taylor, Trauma and Abuse Counselor, United Kingdom

“This webinar [with Bessel van der Kolk] . . . disseminated information that I had not heard as succinctly or clearly in the past . . . Van der Kolk gave many concrete examples of interventions to calm the physiology . . . And there was so much more packed into this one hour that connected the dots for me. This was truly an enriching webinar; I’m so happy I tuned in.”
- Louise Del Maestro, LCSW, Annandale, VA

“Another webinar packed with solid content. Pat [Ogden] was incredible – covered so much with clarity, and examples from her work. Many thanks to Ruth and NICABM for this whole series. Having completed the formal teaching component of my training, these sessions reinforce and add to my learning and practice. My Wednesday evenings at 10pm will not be the same!”
- Sue Brierly, Senior Trainee Integrative Child Counselor, Lancashire United Kingdom

If you were able to share some of your thoughts with everyone on one of the comment boards (or our blog), thank you for your participation. Having the involvement of caring people like yourself makes our programs more than just a webinar series, and into a real community of practitioners.

So thank you again for joining us. If you haven’t seen this year’s Treatment of Trauma series yet, it’s not too late to become a Gold Member – click here.

If you’ve seen the series, what parts stayed with you the most? Have you applied anything from the series in your practice yet? Please share your experience in the comments below.

What makes some people more vulnerable to trauma?

Ruth Buczynski, PhD — Mon, 06 May 2013 20:57:05 +0000

Sometimes it seems like there are two kinds of people in the world – those who can be so resilient in the face of stressful or traumatic events, and those who develop Post-Traumatic Stress.

We know that some people are simply more vulnerable to developing PTSD than others . . .

. . . but why?

Naomi Breslau, PhD of the Epidemiology Department of Michigan State University wanted to find out whether chronic worrying could play a role in heightening a person’s risk of suffering PTSD following a traumatic episode.

She and her colleagues analyzed data from a 10-year study of approximately one thousand randomly chosen young members of a southeastern Michigan HMO.

When the longitudinal epidemiological study started, participants answered twelve questions to measure their chronic anxiety, depression, and their tendency to overreact to daily stressors (all frequent contributors to what is often characterized as “neuroticism”).

Follow-ups were done at the three, five, and ten-year marks.

Approximately half of the participants experienced a traumatic event during the course of the study, though only five percent developed PTSD.

This five percent tended to score higher on the neuroticism scale during the study’s four assessment phases. The relative risk of the development of PTSD in cases where participants scored high on neuroticism was statistically significant.

These findings are notable because neuroticism was measured before the participants experienced trauma, suggesting that neuroticism may be an indicator for vulnerability to developing PTSD rather than a characteristic that develops as a result of trauma.

However, there could be other factors that make an individual more likely to develop trauma that this study did not measure.

While we might never be able to prevent traumatic events from happening, studies like this one can at least help us recognize who might be at higher risk for suffering long-term effects of trauma and tailor treatment accordingly.

If you’d like to read more about this study, it was published in Psychological Medicine, November 30, 2012.

And to find out more about the different ways that trauma can develop, and the latest interventions for recovery, please join us for the next webinar in our Treatment of Trauma series – Pat Ogden, PhD will share key therapeutic first steps in treating trauma.

The webinar is free to watch at the time of broadcast, you just have to sign up here.

Have you ever helped a patient build or regain their resilience after a traumatic event? Please share your experience in the comment section below.

How to Use Body Patterns to Discover the Impact of Trauma

Ruth Buczynski, PhD — Fri, 03 May 2013 20:44:15 +0000

Your body is constantly in motion, but how often do you pay attention to what these movements convey?

Focusing on the way people move their bodies can actually show us a lot about the trauma they’ve experienced.

But how can we help people learn to recognize what their bodies are reflecting about their trauma?

By mastering the art of contact statements, we can let patients interpret their own movements.

In this video, Pat Ogden, PhD explains what contact statements are and the right way to use them to open a critical crack in the door to self-awareness. Check it out – it’s just 4 minutes.

Click here to sign up.

Pat will tell us more about ways we can work with the body to address trauma in this week’s webinar of our Trauma Therapy series.

She’ll also get into how important it is to be conscious of the way your voice sounds to people when you talk to them about their trauma.

The webinar is free to watch – just sign up here.

Do you use body patterns to help people discover new insights about themselves? Please share your experience in the comments below.

The False Choice: Our Calling and Our Income

Ruth Buczynski, PhD — Thu, 02 May 2013 22:37:23 +0000

Last week, I talked about challenging ourselves to be brave.

You shared a lot of beautiful responses and dreams – everything from learning to dance to leaving your agency to open a practice. Your stories and goals are inspiring to me.

There’s so much each of us has to contribute to the world, and yet it’s easy to allow issues of bravery or other limiting beliefs to hold us back.

Our limiting beliefs can be about anything that has to do with our identity or potential, but today I want to focus on one tricky area in particular: money.

Ask yourself honestly: How do you feel about how you are paid?

It’s not a question we’re used to as practitioners. We were called to this profession because we wanted to serve others and change the world . .

. . . not because we wanted to make a fantastic salary.

But too often, we expect of ourselves (and each other) that we be entirely selfless, and often see the expectation of being compensated for the important work we do as almost crass. It’s something that people in that “other” world do.

Yet money is a fact of life. While it might be uncomfortable to discuss openly, it’s something we can’t avoid – especially when your kid needs braces, or your car starts making that strange rattling sound, or you just want to finally take off for that dream vacation in Italy.

And, we have a lot to gain by taking on the topic head-on.

So often, we frame this as a choice between being paid fairly for what we do versus making a difference in the world.

But I think that’s a false choice – it doesn’t have to be one or the other. Nor should it be.

And buying into this false choice may be something that we, in our line of work, are prone to.

I don’t see too many engineers, business executives, or airline pilots who are shy about taking home fair compensation for their important work.

Yet if we don’t value what we do, what makes us think others will?

We also often buy into the idea that any limit to our compensation is set by someone else and is entirely beyond our control.

So let me ask you, how are you paid and how do you feel about it? Is it enough to take time off around the holidays? Will you be able to retire one day?

Do you have any limiting beliefs about what you “should” earn that could be holding you back?

As practitioners we know all too well how our expectations and beliefs can hold us back.

If we’re not willing to examine our own limiting beliefs . . . how can we help our clients push past their limitations?

I’m not saying we don’t do pro bono work or give our tithe (perhaps beyond that), but I would like to challenge us all to think about the limiting beliefs we might have around money.

So I invite you to think about it for a bit, and ask yourself: what are your personal feelings about making money, and do they hold you back in any way from being all you can be, or from giving all that you have to offer to the world?

Okay, that’s enough bravery for me for the day. Now it’s your turn. Please leave your thoughts in the comments below.

Coping with trauma: Overcoming the strategy that could be worsening symptoms

Ruth Buczynski, PhD — Mon, 29 Apr 2013 21:17:13 +0000

Why is it that 33% to 53% of HIV-infected people have histories of childhood sexual abuse?

Just take a look at the symptoms of childhood sexual abuse – helplessness, low self-esteem, dissociation, denial, self-destructiveness . . . these psychological difficulties that can result from childhood sexual abuse are often related to HIV risk behavior.

Studies show that childhood sexual abuse is associated with avoidant coping, which can lead to increased traumatic symptoms . . . so perhaps changing the coping strategy of people who experienced childhood sexual abuse could be useful?

Duke University professor Kathleen J. Sikkema, PhD conducted a study to examine whether a coping intervention could reduce traumatic stress and poor health outcomes in adult survivors of childhood sexual abuse living with HIV.

First, Dr. Sikkema and her colleagues recruited 247 HIV-positive participants who had experienced sexual abuse as a child or adolescent.

Next, a computer-assisted interview was completed by all participants, with follow-up assessments every 4 months over a 16-month period. After the first interview, participants were randomly assigned to one of two groups.

The experimental group participated in an intervention called Living in the Face of Trauma (LIFT). LIFT uses cognitive appraisal and coping skills training to help people deal with the stress related to childhood sexual abuse and HIV. The participants in the control took part in HIV support group sessions.

In between the first and second assessments, both groups attended 15 90-minute weekly sessions conducted by therapists in a community health center.

During each of the five assessments, participants completed self-report measures of traumatic stress symptoms and the use of avoidant coping strategies.

Was the coping intervention more successful than the support group intervention?

Subjects who participated in the LIFT coping intervention reported a greater decrease in traumatic stress and avoidant coping than subjects in the support intervention.

And because both interventions were conducted in a group setting, it is likely that the significant reductions in avoidant coping in the LIFT group were a result of the focus on developing coping skills and not just the social support.

However, one limitation of this study is that the sample had a very small number of heterosexual men, and therefore, we have to be careful about how far we generalize these results. More work needs to be done to understand the impact of sexual abuse among heterosexual men.

But for people living with HIV who have experienced childhood sexual abuse, the LIFT intervention may help them focus on current stressors and develop better coping skills to improve their health and reduce traumatic stress.

To learn more about this study, you can find it in the Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, Volume 81, No. 2.

If you want to learn other ways to address trauma symptoms, Stephen Porges, PhD will be with us this Wednesday to talk about why polyvagal theory is important in understanding the defense system of the traumatized body.

You can sign up for the free broadcast here.

Have you ever worked with patients who used avoidant coping strategies? How did you help them to improve their method of coping? Please leave a comment below.

The Polyvagal Theory: Looking at Trauma through a New Lens

Ruth Buczynski, PhD — Fri, 26 Apr 2013 19:53:11 +0000

Can trauma haunt the body the same way it haunts memories?

According to Stephen Porges, PhD, not only does the body remember a traumatic experience, but it can actually get stuck in the trauma response mode.

So even when life becomes safe, the body still perceives danger and its defenses stay engaged.

Why does this happen and what can we do about it? Stephen shares a little background along with his own personal experience with this phenomenon – check it out, it’s just 4 minutes.

Click here to sign up.

Stephen will tell us more about how the polyvagal theory can explain why the body’s responses change after trauma, and what we can do to modulate these reactions in the next webinar of our Trauma Therapy series.

He’ll also get into how we have the ability to read people’s faces to determine whether they are safe or not, and how our own body unconsciously communicates how safe we are to others.

The webinar is free to watch – just sign up here.

Have you or someone you work with ever felt immobilized by fear without understanding the reason for it? How did you overcome it? Please leave your thoughts in the comments below.

If I were brave . . .

Ruth Buczynski, PhD — Thu, 25 Apr 2013 21:30:10 +0000

I was reminiscing recently about our December conference in Hilton Head.

We don’t host it anymore, but one moment made a lasting impact on me, and certainly touched many of the practitioners attending, too.

It’s a song called If I Were Brave, by Jana Stanfield. Jana, a talented singer/songwriter, performed this inspiring song at a couple of our conferences.

It asks each of us what we would do today if we had the courage to do it.

Take a moment to listen – I think you’ll like some of the real-life bravery “stories” in this video.

When I hear Jana’s words in this song, I can’t help but reflect on my own issues with bravery.

You see, we often expect our clients to change their behavior. We want them to try new things, get past their limits, and push themselves to make a change.

This is at the heart of the work we do.

But when it comes to looking at our own lives in the same light, that’s where many of us recoil a bit at the thought of big risks … and big change.

Now, I want you to ask the question. What new direction would you head in “if you were brave?” Are there ways in which you currently stop yourself from taking risks? Do you have beliefs about yourself or about the world that hold you back?

Please leave a comment below and tell us what you would do today if you were brave.